Senior Backend Engineer (Vertical Ads)

Tokyo
No Remote
Full-time
June 12, 2024

About SmartNews

SmartNews is a global leader in redefining information and news discovery, committed to providing users with accurate, timely information and supporting quality journalism. We combine the power of our unique machine-learning technology with the expertise of our first-rate editorial team to bring news that matters to millions of users from our over 3,000 global publishing partners.

Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, Japan, SmartNews has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, and Singapore.

The Team

The SmartNews Ads Division has many teams, together we build systems that find the best interests among the 3 parties: our users, advertisers, publishers and SmartNews.

Vertical Ads Team is responsible for building and optimizing vertical product solutions such as branding ads, dynamic ads, and more. Branding ads are high-quality, visually compelling ads crafted to enhance brand visibility and recognition.

The Role

In this role, you will collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, and sales from different regions. Your role involves laying the foundational groundwork through our focus on architecture and other core engineering tasks to support better feature engineering. We highly value curiosity and a proactive mindset, as you will have the opportunity to contribute your ideas and take ownership. We encourage engineering-driven initiatives to accelerate product growth further.

You will also work with exciting teams from JP and the US, where you can shape the future of new products by building and iterating on solutions while prioritizing scalability, performance, reliability, security, and other essential engineering practices.

Your Reponsibilities

You'll make a strong partnership with product teams to build the next generation of SmartNews Brand Ads & Dynamic Ads Product
You’ll question the current solution, propose improvements then realize them with the team
You'll Work on end to end stack of ad-platform including serving, bidding and optimization

Requirements

Minimum requirements

Fluent in any of the following languages: Java, Kotlin, Golang, C++
Fluent in using Kafka, Redis, SQL and Cassandra
Deep understanding in batching and streaming data processing
Experienced in CICD
Experienced in microservice powered by container technology such as Docker and Kubernetes

Nice to have experiences/skills

Language ability: Golang, TypeScript, Python, SQL
Db experience: Cassandra, DynamoDb and MongoDb
Engineering experience: migrate on-prem system onto cloud
Industry experience: Digital Advertising Technology

Benefits

Benefits available at the SmartNews Tokyo Office

Lunch and snacks prepared daily in our on-site kitchen facility
In-office coffee stand offering single-origin coffees, espresso-based beverages, teas, and other seasonal drinks
SmartSelect, our support program for employee self-development, well-being, and productivity
All healthcare and social insurance required by the Japanese labor law

Visa Sponsorship and Relocation Support

Work visa sponsorship is available for candidates who meet eligibility requirements
To support a smooth transition for candidates who are moving to Japan from overseas, SmartNews partners with a travel service provider

APPLY NOW ➜

About SmartNews

Recently crowned Japan's latest tech unicorn, this company runs a wildly successful news service that’s powered by machine learning. It's an engineering-focused company (One of co-founders is an engineer) and they have offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Shanghai, Beijing that are apparently doing quite well too.

The mission of SmartNews is to discover and deliver quality stories to the world. Since its inception in 2012, the SmartNews app has been downloaded over 50 million downloads and maintained a monthly active user count of over 20 million.

In addition to being one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, SmartNews has worked hard on building their business in the US. They now have partnerships with over 300 major news publications in the US like CBS, Entertainment Weekly, Business Insider, National Geographic and more. They’ve had a great deal of success due to their ML-based sorting and recommendation systems.

SmartNews has a highly diverse development team with many world-class engineers and others working from their offices in Japan,China and the US. They maintain a very strict hiring bar for technical hires and an engineering-driven culture that makes them one of the strongest tech companies in Japan when it comes to technical skill level.

SmartNews is looking to hire the best people regardless of background, so they’re willing to hire people that don’t speak Japanese and (under normal circumstances) bring them to Japan from overseas if necessary. Everyone works together as one team regardless of location, and SmartNews provides everything their employees need to do their best work and maintains a Silicon Valley-inspired culture for engineers in Tokyo.

SmartNews's policies during COVID-19 are as follows:

All interviews are being conducted remotely
Employees are working remotely following the government’s instructions
They've given everyone some monetary incentive to support working from home

Japanese Language Policy
We do not require Japanese language ability in the working environment. We have a language support program if employees want to learn Japanese.
Visa Sponsorship
We support candidates to get a working visa from the start to the end (for JP office joiners).
Paid Leave
Our holidays shall include Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, and other days designated by the Company.

Annual paid holidays
- 4-10 days of paid holiday will be granted depending on the month in which you join the Company.
- From the second year and onwards, paid holidays will be granted according to the number of years of your employment on April 1st of each year. The number of days granted shall be set forth in the Work Rules.
Other leaves
- Summer holidays
- Year-end and year-beginning holidays
- Special leave for congratulation or condolence (marriage or immediate family death)
- Sick/Injured Child Care Leave
- Family nursing care leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
Benefits
☕️ ChikyuCoffee - Delicious coffee provided by our Barista every day

🍹 Free soft drinks

🌽 SmartKitchen - Healthy organic lunch on a daily basis for free at our cafeteria

👩‍🎓 Foreign language development support

💜 Various social insurance benefits included

🏥 Health insurance

📓 Free book rent from our library collections

🌎 Translation/interpretation support (EN<>JP)
Remote Work
We accept work from home policy during natural disasters and emergency situations. Our company’s working policy during the pandemic follows the government’s recommendations.
Work style
Our engineering and product teams follow the discretionary labor system to better collaborate with members in the US and China.
Diversity
We support diversity in various ways and those are not simply reflected in the quantitative goals.

We have employees with 18 different nationalities. Groups of small gatherings with similar interests are actively communicating across divisions, departments, and regions. We have monthly Global All Hands to share important notes from each region and be aligned globally.

All employees in SmartNews have different personal and professional backgrounds and experiences.
Parents and Family
We are supporting our employees in various ways to help them manage their work better with family care.

We have 10 annual paid leaves (for a child) for employees with children until they enter highschool.

Working from home is encouraged when their family needs care. Employees can freely invite their family to the Smart Kitchen (our corporate kitchen where free lunches are served).

During the working from home period because of the pandemic, employees with small children autonomously held some online sessions for their children such as reading fairy tales and mutual online babysittings.